Hypermodernity
Encyclopedia
Hypermodernity is a type, mode, or stage of society
that reflects a deepening or intensification of modernity
. Characteristics include a deep faith in humanity's ability to understand, control, and manipulate every aspect of human experience. This typically is manifested in a forward-looking commitment to science
and knowledge
, particularly with regard to the convergence of technology
and biology
. The emphasis on the value of new technology
to overcome natural limitations lends itself a diminution or outright repudiation of the past, since yesterday's knowledge is always less than today's.
Hypermodernity (also called "Supermodernity") differs from Modernity
in that it has even more commitment to reason and to an ability to improve individual choice and freedom. Modernity merely held out the hope of reasonable change while continuing to deal with a historical set of issues and concerns; hypermodernity posits that things are changing so quickly that history
is not a reliable guide. The positive changes of hypermodernity are supposedly witnessed through rapidly expanding wealth, better living standards, medical advances, and so forth. Individuals and cultures that benefit directly from these things can feel that they are pulling away from natural limits that have always constrained life on Earth. But the negative effects also can be seen as leading to a soulless homogeneity as well as to accelerated discrepancies between different classes and groups.
Postmodernity
differs here in that it rejects the idea of "reasonable change" while at the same time accepting that the past and its artifacts have as much value as the present. The value is primarily expressed through provisional constructs that have no lasting meaning; we cannot discern truth but we can play with the nonsense. Postmodernity is meant to describe a condition of total emergence from Modernity and its faith in progress and improvement in empowering the individual.
and relies upon a view of plausible truths. Where modernism
focused upon the creation of great truths (or what Lyotard called "master narratives" or "metanarrative
s"), postmodernity is intent upon their destruction (deconstruction
). In contrast supermodernity does not concern itself with the creation or identification of truth value. Instead, information that is useful is selected from the superabundant sources of new media. Postmodernity
and deconstruction
have made the creation of truths an impossible construction. Supermodernity acts amid the chatter and excess of signification in order to escape the nihilistic tautology
of postmodernity. The Internet search and the construction of interconnected blogs are excellent metaphors for the action of the supermodern subject. Related authors are Terry Eagleton
After Theory, and Marc Augé
Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity.
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
that reflects a deepening or intensification of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
. Characteristics include a deep faith in humanity's ability to understand, control, and manipulate every aspect of human experience. This typically is manifested in a forward-looking commitment to science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
, particularly with regard to the convergence of technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
. The emphasis on the value of new technology
Technocentrism
Technocentrism is a term that denotes a value system that is centred on technology and its ability to affect, control and protect the environment. Technocentrics have absolute faith in technology and industry and firmly believe that humans have control over nature...
to overcome natural limitations lends itself a diminution or outright repudiation of the past, since yesterday's knowledge is always less than today's.
Hypermodernity
There can be a profound lack of integration between the past and the present since:- What happened necessarily took place under "lesser" circumstances than now, which generates a fundamentally separate context.
- Artifacts from the past superabundantly clutter the cultural landscape and are seamlessly reused to generate an even greater superabundance from which individuals are unable to discern original intent or meaning.
Hypermodernity (also called "Supermodernity") differs from Modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
in that it has even more commitment to reason and to an ability to improve individual choice and freedom. Modernity merely held out the hope of reasonable change while continuing to deal with a historical set of issues and concerns; hypermodernity posits that things are changing so quickly that history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
is not a reliable guide. The positive changes of hypermodernity are supposedly witnessed through rapidly expanding wealth, better living standards, medical advances, and so forth. Individuals and cultures that benefit directly from these things can feel that they are pulling away from natural limits that have always constrained life on Earth. But the negative effects also can be seen as leading to a soulless homogeneity as well as to accelerated discrepancies between different classes and groups.
Postmodernity
Postmodernity
Postmodernity is generally used to describe the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity...
differs here in that it rejects the idea of "reasonable change" while at the same time accepting that the past and its artifacts have as much value as the present. The value is primarily expressed through provisional constructs that have no lasting meaning; we cannot discern truth but we can play with the nonsense. Postmodernity is meant to describe a condition of total emergence from Modernity and its faith in progress and improvement in empowering the individual.
Supermodernity
If distinguished from hypermodernity, supermodernity is a step beyond the ontological emptiness of postmodernismPostmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
and relies upon a view of plausible truths. Where modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
focused upon the creation of great truths (or what Lyotard called "master narratives" or "metanarrative
Metanarrative
A metanarrative , in critical theory and particularly postmodernism, is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. According to John Stephens, it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge...
s"), postmodernity is intent upon their destruction (deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
). In contrast supermodernity does not concern itself with the creation or identification of truth value. Instead, information that is useful is selected from the superabundant sources of new media. Postmodernity
Postmodernity
Postmodernity is generally used to describe the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity...
and deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
have made the creation of truths an impossible construction. Supermodernity acts amid the chatter and excess of signification in order to escape the nihilistic tautology
Tautology (rhetoric)
Tautology is an unnecessary or unessential repetition of meaning, using different and dissimilar words that effectively say the same thing...
of postmodernity. The Internet search and the construction of interconnected blogs are excellent metaphors for the action of the supermodern subject. Related authors are Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis Eagleton FBA is a British literary theorist and critic, who is regarded as one of Britain's most influential living literary critics...
After Theory, and Marc Augé
Marc Augé
Marc Augé is a French anthropologist.In an essay and book of the same title, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity , Marc Augé coined the phrase "non-place" to refer to places of transience that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as "places"...
Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity.